


True opener of mine eyes, prime Angel blessed,

by The_Fish_291



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: I'm such a fanfiction virgin, M/M, angel au, idk man, this is my first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:18:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7594303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fish_291/pseuds/The_Fish_291
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack finally managed to get into the kitchen. He was expecting to see Bittle in there, too, making a pie or grabbing another beer, but he was nowhere in sight. Where is he? Jack thought as he put his beer down left of the sink, where he could find it later. Unlike him, Bitty loved Haus parties. He had sworn he saw him earlier that night, talking with one of the swimmers on the porch, but then he was gone.<br/><br/>Jack was about to head back into the living room when he felt a thump beneath his feet. The heavy table, covered in food, snacks, beer, and dishes rattled.<br/><br/>“What the hell-“ Jack asked the empty kitchen. Another thump answered, louder this time, and a muffled exclamation.<br/>The basement. That was really the only option.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What's In The Basement?

**Author's Note:**

> Bitty's an angel. He's super cool, but things get complicated when Jack figures out more than he needs to know. Please help me, I'm new to this thing.  
> The title is from book XI of Milton's "Paradise Lost", btw. I might end up bumping the rating if I choose to continue this.

_For a kegster, this isn’t so bad,_ Jack thinks as he weaves his way through the pulsing, excited crowd in the direction of the kitchen.

Shitty had insisted that Jack stay for this one. “No friend of mine is staying locked up in his room watching some conspiracy-theory-““It’s about trench warfare in the first World War, Shits-““While one of the greatest parties in the universe is raging just below! I won’t have it!” So, reluctantly, Jack agreed to hang around for this one. Ransom and Holster were keeping him company for most of the night, providing conversation and making sure Jack felt comfortable, Shitty and Lardo were on crowd control, and Jack was willing to admit that, yeah, these parties might actually be fun.

A song had started playing through the speakers and Ransom and Holster bolted to the middle of the dance floor, leaving Jack alone. It was a Beyoncé song that Bittle was singing in the shower just a few days ago, so when the small blonde wasn’t right there, dancing along with Ransom and Holster, Jack was surprised.

Jack finally managed to get into the kitchen. He was expecting to see Bittle in there, too, making a pie or grabbing another beer, but he was nowhere in sight. _Where is he?_ Jack thought as he put his beer down left of the sink, where he could find it later. Unlike him, Bitty loved Haus parties. He had sworn he saw him earlier that night, talking with one of the swimmers on the porch, but then he was gone.

Jack was about to head back into the living room when he felt a _thump_ beneath his feet. The heavy table, covered in food, snacks, beer, and dishes rattled. 

“What the hell-“ Jack asked the empty kitchen. Another thump answered, louder this time, and a muffled exclamation.

The basement. That was really the only option. But didn’t he always carefully lock the door before each party? His freshman year, the lacrosse players managed to get down there and make a huge mess before he, Shitty, and Johnson chased them out. They swore that the basement would always be locked during kegsters after that, because water heaters are expensive and college students don’t care.

He pushed back through the crowd in the direction of the hallway and he heard the song come to an end. Something else started playing, Justin Bieber, maybe? Jack didn’t care. The bass, dancing, and talking had obviously hidden the noises from downstairs. It was a miracle no one noticed as Jack edged his way around the drunken crowd and slipped through the unlocked basement door.

“Okay, I thought you would cooperate, but it looks like you’re choosing the hard way.” Was that… Bittle’s voice? Jack didn’t have time to turn the thought over in his head in the answering roar followed by another loud _THUMP_.

He threw himself down the stairs thinking _I should have grabbed a broom_ when he saw something that left his mind blank.

Bitty, the small, unimposing boy from the South, glowing in the light from the single hanging lightbulb, was staring down a man tied to a chair. Jack couldn’t quite make out his face in the darkness of his hair. He was tied with some rope that had always been in the corner by the washing machine but had never moved, and though his arms and legs were restrained, his head has twisting violently back and forth as he tried to free himself.

Harder to explain were the objects floating in the air. Bittle didn’t seem to care about them, but Jack’s legs were feeling light as another chair, a broken lamp, an abandoned jersey, and a box slowly orbited the pair in the center of the room.

Bitty was suddenly facing him. How did he move so fast? “J-Jack?” he whispered. _I must have gasped_ , Jack thought absently as the man (much younger than Jack initially thought, probably a student) looked up at him, too. His eyes were bloodshot and bulging out of their sockets, his mouth was stretched in a wide grin that bared all his teeth. More than anything, Jack wanted to turn around and go back up the stairs to the first party he could say he was enjoying, but he was frozen in that wide-eyed gaze.

“Jack, I can explain,” Bitty said. Jack broke the other young man’s stare and looked at Bitty again, at his expression of concern. His huge, pretty brown eyes looked like they were glowing from within, but surely that was the light from the bulb? It couldn’t be anything else? Jack was starting to feel dizzy.

The floating chair launched out of orbit, aimed directly at the back of Bittle’s head. Jack was about to unfreeze and push the smaller man out of the way, but without looking, Bitty flicked his hand and the chair turned and smashed into kindling against the wall to their left.

“I guess that explains the noise,” Jack said. As he spoke, the edges of his vision started becoming fuzzy.

“Jack, please, oh no – oh, you stop that! Have some respect! – Jack, I’m so sorry, please sit down, don’t pass out on me – I said stop it!” Bitty deflected another object but Jack couldn’t see what it was, he was too busy sitting on the bottom stair and putting his head between his knees. He focused on breathing and memorizing the cracked cement between his feet. Bittle was back with the kid in the chair, scolding him and asking questions that Jack couldn’t understand with the ringing in his ears. His hands, which he had kept steady for so long, were shaking on his knees.

Jack began focusing on what he could feel. The basement was unseasonably cold, the stair was hard enough to make his ass a little sore from sitting, the bass from the party was beating against his ribs, not quite on-beat with his heart. Breathe in, hold for three, and out all the way. In, hold, out. Ignore the person in the chair, who was growling and spitting venomous words at Bittle, who was reciting something in a language Jack didn’t understand.

A loud roar, something crashing on the ceiling of the basement. Jack flinched. In, hold, out.

“Jack, are you okay over there?” Bitty stopped chanting and sounded concerned. Jack held up a shaky thumbs-up. “Good, I’ll be over to help you in a sec. I have to deal with this unpleasant fellow for a bit, but then I’ll be over there again.”

Jack was feeling better, perhaps even good enough to glance over at what Bitty was doing. Hands still clenched on his knees, he looked up and regretted it.

He had sworn when he first saw the pair, there hadn’t been anything on the floor around them, but now there were definitely glowing symbols, spinning and moving in a circle around the man in the chair. Jack didn’t understand any of it, furthermore, he didn’t understand the black mist swirling around the form of the thrashing restrained student. Bitty was chanting louder, faster, and more darkness was oozing from the boy’s pores until it formed reaching hands, curling claws, gaping jaws. Out of the desperate human crawled a tall dark figure with two heads and four horns, long, human arms with clawed hands, long legs, and… a whipping tail. It was easily eight feet tall, towering over Bittle’s glowing form ( _stop kidding yourself_ , Jack thought, _it’s not the lightbulb. He’s actually glowing)_. The frigid basement got even colder and the grotesque jaws were opening wider, looking like they could swallow his head in a single bite –

Bittle exclaimed loudly and clearly, “ _Recede hinc, pecus! Ego praecipio tibi, unde venisti!”_ And the figure sank into the basement floor with a final, gargling shriek. The glowing symbols disappeared and the miscellaneous floating object crashed to the floor. The man in the chair went completely limp, and Bitty, well.

Jack gasped. Bitty was glowing brighter than that lightbulb, Jack imagined he could see iridescent flames licking up his arms, and on his shoulders, reaching almost entirely across the basement…

“Wings,” Jack gasped and let the darkness take him.


	2. The Questionable Decision-Making Skills of Eric R. Bittle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In hindsight, performing an exorcism in the basement during a kegster might not have been Eric’s most brilliant idea.

In hindsight, performing an exorcism in the basement during a kegster might not have been Eric’s most brilliant idea.

Performing it was never up to interpretation; it had to happen eventually, it was just a matter of time. Eric made sure he was prepared at all times in case something went down in or near the Haus. He checked the protective sigils on all support beams of the Haus at least once a day, kept sacred herbs and holy water as well as his little blessed trinkets in random cupboards, and the basement was especially bolstered for rituals because of the low traffic. Eric was _set._

And then the swimmer happened. For weeks, Eric had felt a rumbling around campus. Usually he avoided trouble, happy to keep his circle protected from anything sinister and avoiding any conflict, but the presence that put a bitter taste at the back of his throat decided to walk into _his home_ during a _party?_ Eric wouldn’t have it.

By the time Eric flirted his way into the demon’s graces, he knew the years of cloaking himself were paying off. The demon didn’t even blink when Eric lifted an eyebrow, glanced up through his lashes, suggested they find somewhere a little more… _private_. As he led him down the stairs and surreptitiously locked the door behind them, he knew that knocking it out and sending it back to Hell would be easy peasy.

…Maybe.

He wasn’t the only one cloaking himself, apparently. Hidden under the layers of magic and human flesh was not the little trickster that Eric imagined. Instead he was trying to wrangle a Hell Knight who had become very comfortable in the body of a 20-year-old athlete. It spat curses at him as he bound it to the chair with his incantations and a random rope he had blessed a year ago but never found use for. If Eric hadn’t been a literal angel, the amount of pure evil and heat rolling off its skin would have left bruising and burns all over his body. Incantations would be almost enough to take care of it but the final push would take some real angelic intervention.

Thankfully, the door was locked.

Except that somehow it hadn’t been, and now not only was there the unconscious body of a college student tied to a chair in his basement, but also a passed-out French Canadian to deal with.

“I am so, _so_ screwed,” Eric groaned into his hands.

He looked at the bits of dirt on the cement between his feet where he was sitting on the bottom stair. Jack had been sitting right there, and now it was Eric using the bottom step as an anchor to keep himself from passing out.

Of course sending Mr. Happy back to eternal damnation would tap into his power and Eric was okay with that, but doing that while protecting Jack from the celestial fire pouring out of himself? He felt like his insides had been scrubbed with steel wool, his legs were hollow, and the pain in his temples was _not_ coming from partying too hard. All he wanted to do was drag his useless body up to his room and sleep well into the next morning. _How in the world am I going to get these two out of the basement?_

Jack began to stir. He had only fallen about a foot away, but the knowledge of what he had seen felt like a chasm. If Eric wasn’t exhausted in every way imaginable, he would make a break for the door and hide for the rest of eternity.

Jack… _saw_ him. The real Eric, not the cute college hockey player he was enjoying playing. He hadn’t seen all of Eric’s raw, unadulterated angelic power, but enough to figure out that Eric wasn’t human. Fire and wings, a halo, perhaps. Jack witnessed object being thrown through the air without hands, glowing symbols moving around the room.

_He has borne witness_ , Eric heard from the back of his mind. _If he remembers, his life will never be the same. He will be called to witness other things than this._ He quickly shut that up and filed it under _Later_ in his brain. Jack was moving more now, thank the Lord.

Jack’s eyes were still closed. His arms and legs were moving slowly, carefully, like he was testing them. His breathing was deep and purposeful.

“Jack, are you okay?” Eric asked quietly. Jack flinched. His calmly unconscious façade broke into a grimace, but his eyes were still closed. “Jack, please answer me.”

“Why.” Jack’s voice was harder than Eric had ever heard it, even during his whole first year when Jack seemed to hate his guts. Eric’s intestines slooped somewhere into his favorite blue party sneakers.

“I want to make sure you’re okay,” Eric said. “You were out for a few minutes, between five and ten, I don’t know for sure. My phone is up in my room for the party.”

_Jesus, Mary, and Jojo the carpenter,_ he thought. _There’s still a party upstairs. I really could have planned this better._

“What. The hell. Just happened.” Jack was still speaking through a clenched jaw. If anything, his eyes were only screwing tighter, not opening.

“I –“ Eric paused. “I don’t think I can explain it right –“

“Now. Please explain it right now.” Oh no, his voice sounded less angry as he went on and more pained.

“Well, I, um. I guess –“ For once in his life, Eric could not make words come out of his mouth. His thoughts were less of a stream of consciousness and more of an incessant flow of _how the hell do I explain myself what should I say this all sounds insane how_ – and Bitty had to heave a breath. It didn’t help any that his limbs felt like they were stuffed with cotton, muffling anything he tried to do as he gestured weakly around the trashed basement.

“Who is that.” Jack’s voice brought him back.

“The guy in the chair?” Eric pointed at the figure slumped in the chair, then dropped his arm when he remembered Jack was still keeping himself in the dark. “He’s a sophomore on the swimming team, his name is Michael, and he was possessed by a high-level scion of the legions of Hell whose name is unpronounceable.” He couldn’t help but let out a giggle at how crazy it sounded. “If he was telling the truth during the party, he’s a Scorpio who loves long walks on the beach and frozen yogurt.”

Jack’s eyes opened wide under his dark brows. Bitty felt more bubbling laughter in his chest at Jack’s clenched face as he still lay on the dirty floor while his head whipped back and forth between Michael (himself again, hopefully) and Bitty, who was feeling more hysterical as he watched the scene unfold before him.

Jack was beginning to look more than a little green around the gills. “I think I’m going to throw up,” he said.

Oh no. “Please don’t,” Bitty said and hated the way it sounded; reedy and annoying, breathless like a child who didn’t want to go to school. He took a deep breath and gathered himself. “I… need your help.”

Jack sat up and gave Eric a look filled to the brim with hellfire. “Aren’t you all-powerful?” He threw one of his arms out and wave it in the general direction of all the chaos. “Aren’t you an –“ Jack stopped himself. He looked like he was trying to choke the word out but just could _not_. “Not human.”

Bitty couldn’t help but notice that all through his exclamations and flailing, Jack was being as expressive as Bitty had ever seen him. His hands had been shaking earlier but they looked still now as he pointed and waved them around, making invisible waves in the dusty air. He was _moving_ , the absolute terror and shock from earlier removing his carefully orchestrated silence of mouth and body, but Bitty was more entranced by his eyes. They were wide and shining in the light from that sad, lonely lightbulb.

“Well, are you?” Bitty snapped back to attention at Jack’s hard question.

“No, I’m not.” Just because he wasn’t human didn’t necessarily make him stronger, though. Eric could feel the emptiness in his limbs fading already, but too slow. The shining center behind his breastbone was dimmed to a dull, flickering glow. He was completely out of commission until tomorrow at least, and weaker than he would like to be until the day after.

“I’m not human like you are,” he said, “but I am feeling worse for wear, and I need a big, strong hockey player like yourself to help me get him,” he pointed at Unconscious Michael, “out of the Haus.”

“But –“

“I know you have a whole load of questions, and I promise I’ll answer them.” Eric sighed. _This turned out to be a real shitshow_ , he thought wryly.

“Not tonight?” Jack asked. He was slowly standing up, but his legs looked steady and his face was smoothing back out to the stoic Captain Hockey mask that Bitty recognized. To Eric’s utmost surprise, he held out his hand.

“Definitely not,” Eric said as he took it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get this chapter up before my family reunion, so that's why it's pretty short. I promise that I'll try for longer chapters as I go on! 
> 
> Also, I don't know whether I'll keep alternating POV, but I think I enjoy writing both, so I guess I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading!


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